Cameron Urged to Heal Rift Over U.K. Green Growth Plan

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. lawmakers joined the WWF
environmental pressure group in pressing Prime Minister David
Cameron to heal a rift in the government that’s holding up
proposals to reform the energy market.

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee urged
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to spell out plans in
his autumn statement to Parliament on Dec. 5 for Britain to
achieve its carbon-reduction targets. Osborne should consider a
tax incentive to clean up power generation and consumption, the
cross-party panel said in a report published in London today.

“The Treasury must end the uncertainty on energy policy
and give investors and businesses the confidence to seize the
enormous opportunities presented by new clean technologies,”
the panel’s chairwoman, Joan Walley from the opposition Labour
Party, said in a statement.

The split in the coalition government over support for low-carbon energy has pushed back publication of the Energy Bill,
which is designed to spur 110 billion pounds ($175 billion) of
new power plants and grid upgrades. Sticking points include a
target to cut power sector emissions opposed by the Treasury
because it doesn’t match Chancellor George Osborne’s preference
for gas plants. Liberal Democrat Ed Davey, who leads the Energy
Department, said he supports such a target.

‘At Odds’

“Investors are seeing a government and a party at odds
with itself,” said Samantha Smith, leader of WWF’s Global
Climate and Energy Initiative. Smith accompanied Cameron when he
was the opposition leader on a 2006 trip to observe climate
impacts in the Norwegian Arctic. Photos including Cameron with
husky dogs helped recasting the party’s reputation on the
environment.

The coalition government has sent mixed signals about the
pace of boosting renewables as part of the U.K. energy supply.
John Hayes, a junior energy minister from Cameron’s Conservative
Party, said last month that enough wind turbines have already
been erected and that should be the “end of story.” Davey says
there’s no change in the policy to encourage wind. WWF said
Cameron is breaking his own pledges.

“They promised us the greenest government ever. I believed
him. He was very convincing. What we’re seeing is actually not
that kind of leadership,” Smith said by phone.

Hayes calling for a moratorium on new wind turbines “added
an impression of inconsistency in environmental policy making,”
the lawmakers said in their report.

Company Pressure

Companies including Siemens AG and Areva SA said Oct. 8
suggestions the U.K. will change policy on clean power
threatened “stranding” their investments. Vestas Wind Systems
A/S shelved plans for a factory in southeast England on lack of
clarity for subsidy programs.

The panel also backed Davey in calling for a 2030
decarbonization target in the Energy Bill. A spokeswoman for the
Department of Energy and Climate Change said today by phone that
government still plans to introduce the Energy Bill in
Parliament in November.

Lawmakers said today they’d heard suggestions that Osborne
should consider introducing an incinerator tax to encourage
recycling, taxing the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and
providing local tax rebates for energy-efficient homes.